TOOLING U-SMEPRESSARTICLE

Dirty Work

Dirty
Work

Jergens Inc. in Cleveland is going
after a virtually untapped market with its 3-month-old site, ToolingU.com.The 60-year-old Cleveland manufacturer is on a mission to sign up
corporation for its on-line training courses

"Most online learning is aimed at
traditional education degrees," said Jergens President Jack H. Schron Jr., "but
ToolingU is aimed at the industrial, fingernail-dirt-type subjects used in
manufacturing."

Jergens, which makes clamping
systems and sells industrial cutting tools, saw an opportunity to capitalize on
manufacturers' needs to improve employee skills in a period during which
machinery and cutting tools are changing dramatically.

Schron believes that the
2-month-old site will be successful partly because there's a training shortage
in high schools and trade schools.

ToolingU has partnered with
manufacturers like Dayton Progress and educational institutions such as
Cuyahoga Community College.After
placing ads and getting several articles in trade publications, Jergens is
encouraged by about 600 unique visitors to the site in the last week, including
representatives from Ford, Boeing, GM, Disney, Kodak, and General Electric.

"ToolingU students can use the
latest technologies to learn industrial subjects either on the computer or
hand-held devices" Schron said.

Jergens is pitching ToolingU to
human resource departments.For
$300 per employee, companies gain access to the site's industrial courses for a
year.So far the site offers 20
classes including metal removing, workholding, and computer numerical control.

Companies
and individuals spent more than a $1 billion on e-learning last year, and that
figure is expected to increase tenfold by 2003, according to research firm
International Data Corp. of Framingham, Mass.